The B/R NFL 1,000 is a list of the best players from the 2011 season and, excluding Peyton Manning (who as a future Hall of Famer deserves a pass), only players who competed in more than 200 snaps during the season were included. That means no Jamaal Charles, no Eric Berry and many other big-name players who didn't qualify for admission.

Much was learned by evaluating over 1,000 players during the 2011 NFL season, and one of the biggest takeaways was that stats didn't necessarily translate to scouting criteria. Anyone who has spent time scouting or evaluating college football players can tell you that statistics rarely come in to play, and the same was true here. Maurice Jones-Drew led the NFL in rushing, but he came in as a close second on my running back rankings.

Speaking of running back rankings, many were upset that Darren Sproles came in as the No. 1 back. In defense of that ranking, not once was there a preconceived "plan" to put Sproles or any controversial player at the top at any position. The grading system simply rendered Sproles the best based on the criteria given, and it would have gone against the entire exercise to make a change at the end based on perceptions.

You will notice on the B/R 1,000 list that players across position groups come in tied. We've done our best to group together players with the same score to make reading easy and also to spark debate about the value of each position and the players graded therein.

The one big surprise that we found at the top of the list was that punter Andy Lee comes out as one of the most highly graded players in the NFL. Would Lee be drafted No. 3 overall if the NFL did a league-wide draft? Probably not, but that doesn't diminish his overall value and skill at his position.

And finally, how does Josh Johnson come in as the worst player on the list? Johnson's limited experience definitely hurts his score, but remember, there are 1,696 players on NFL active rosters. Johnson is far from the worst player in the NFL.